Saturday, May 10, 2014

Car theft stats

Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz vehicles were the most sought-after luxury brand among U.S. car thieves from 2009 through 2012

The New York City region had the greatest number of thefts, an insurance-industry group said.

More Mercedes C-Class cars, a total of 485, were stolen during the period than any other luxury model, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The New York City area, including Long Island and northern New Jersey, reported 806 thefts in the period out of a nationwide total of 4,384, the NICB said, citing data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

California had the highest number of luxury thefts of any state at 1,063, followed by Florida with 674. The Los Angeles area had 491 thefts.

The number of luxury-car thefts has decreased in Los Angeles by almost 50 percent since 2005 as security technology improved, Smith said.
“You used to be able to steal a car with a screwdriver,” Smith said. “Now with chips, computers and alarm systems, it’s much more difficult to steal a car.”

The recovery rate of all luxury cars reported stolen in the period was about 84 percent, the study found.

The vehicle with the highest recovery rate was General Motors Co.’s Cadillac CTS at about 91 percent.

The Mercedes S-Class model had the worst recovery rate at about 59 percent, the NICB said.